Just finished “The Second World War” by Antony Beevor and just wow.
I think this is a must read for anyone interested in WW2. It tells the full narrative of the war, and also tells of the horrible Chinese Japanese struggle that many skip, but they really shouldn’t. Many historians actually believe the second Japanese Chinese sino war is the true start to WW2 and I’m inclined to agree, since it directly moves into why USA got involved in the war (when USA cut off japans oil supply after they kept invading China and committing shocking atrocities). In today’s world, I think this is a must read; it blows my mind that WW2 was only 80 years ago. 70 million dead; it blows my mind that us humans are responsible for such destruction in this world.
I had never been a huge history buff, but after reading Antony Beevor’s “Stalingrad” (which I highly recommend) I realized I didn’t know enough about WW2. I mean I’d seen saving private Ryan and band of brothers, I loved those, but realistically that only made up a very small portion of the war. The eastern front of WW2 between the Soviets and the Nazis made up the most brutality of the war (it’s debated the numbers but sone estimate 30 million Soviets were killed). To me, this book made me learn so much about the conflict since it goes over the entire war in a single volume.
There’s something about Beevors writing that just grabs me. He’s not afraid to show the sheer brutality of war, and there was so many times reading this my eyes were the size of saucers. It’s just so shocking that war of this magnitude happened. By the end of it I felt exhausted.
Also what I loved was the constant disagreeing with both the allies and the axis. There was a TON of inside beefs with the Britain’s and the Americans. While both on the same side, I loved that Beevor wasn’t afraid to show how much Roosevelt and especially Sir Winston Churchill had messed up and essentially let Stalin become a massive superpower. The book feels very unbiased. It allows you to get a front row seat to the sheer insanity of the powers all working together, while also having a bit of distrust in one another.
I feel like I’m rambling but I just cannot recommend this book enough. It was released in 2012 so it’s not that old, I really want to read more of Beevor’s works. I feel like if told right, history is some of the most fascinating things ever. It’s not a short book, and there were times when I was wondering if I was ever going to finish it, but it’s quite a page turner. I only say this because I’m not used to long books. But it’s SUCH a page turner, it’s very gripping. I feel like it’s an absolute masterpiece and a must read for any human being. There was SO much I learned, and was entertained all the way through. Masterpiece.
by daikatanaman00